Development and Heuristic-based Usability Evaluation of an e-partograph

Globally, high number of mothers and infants die every year during childbirth. To reduce this problem WHO recommends use of partograph to monitor the progression of labor. However, the conventional paper-based partograph is usually improperly used or it is not used at all. Filling paper partograph and drawing graphs based on measured parameters takes time and it is tiresome and complex. Automating partograph enhances partograph utilization and reduces adverse maternal and fetal outcomes. In this paper, we present the development and usability evaluations made to an electronic partograph (e-partograph). The usability evaluation was done to identify usability problems on the e-partograph and take remedies before putting it in operation. Four usability experts have involved in evaluating the application in each of the three devices (smartphones, tablets, & desktops) used for testing the application. Most of the usability problems were detected by experts who had used small sized devices. In order to give more attentions on the most serious problems we had conducted severity analysis. The analysis shows that the majority of the usability problems (82.8%) that were detected by smartphone users are ranked minor problems. Because of the size of the screens, usability discomforts must have been categorized as usability problems.